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The University of Utah -
Continuum Magazine “I am definitely a retro woman,” says Jaye Maynard BFA’85, who has been receiving accolades for her musical homage to the late jazz singer-songwriter Blossom Dearie. Maynard’s nickname is JayeBird, and her show Bird Amongst the Blossom: A Tribute to the First Blossom Dearie Songbook - styled as a midcentury-modern New York supper club act à la 1962 - features Maynard on vocals, replicating the “wised-up baby-doll jazz stylings” of Dearie, with backup on piano and upright bass, interpreting songs written for and by Dearie in collaboration with such artists as Johnny Mercer, Dave Frishberg, and Bob Dorough (with whom Dearie worked on the popular children’s educational series Schoolhouse Rock!)."
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Cabaret
Scenes Bird Amongst the Blossom By Elliot Zwiebach Jaye Maynard is the “bird” amongst the blossom and Blossom Dearie is the “blossom,” and they make beautiful music together. Maynard is an ardent fan of Dearie’s, and her tribute to the late composer was filled with a variety of musical gems, sung to perfection by Maynard in her own voice, which ranges from soft and gentle to belting and powerful, but always controlled and effortless. Only once did she try to duplicate Dearie’s high-pitched vocal sound — at the end of an amusing version of “Sweet Georgie Fame” (Dearie/Sandra Harris), retitled “Sweet Blossom Dame,” featuring Maynard’s own original lyrics. Maynard was sharp in delivering the delightful lyrics to “I’m Hip” (Bob Dorough/Dave Frishberg) — one of the few songs in the show not composed by Dearie — and her version of the lilting “Winchester in Apple Blossom Time” (lyrics by Walter Birchett, Dearie’s brother) was sultry and powerful."
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